ghetto insulation

GHETTO INSULATION
Let's talk about the Italian earthquake briefly before starting today. Don't pass on this opportunity to go on and on about how those eighty thousand homeless people have no where to go. This will hopefully sway your significant other. Gee, I wonder if something could happen to us like that. Perhaps we should buy that trailer or junk land. Perhaps stocking up at the case sale isn't such a bad idea. Personally, I can't see how anyone can ignore the warning of Katrina where piles of wreckage still squat. You're homeless? Don't bother us, just move to another public housing project in another city. The lesson should be that the government is not here to help ( I also take it as a lesson that we are a nation in decline, but no need to fill their head with too much detail ). Reinforce the message with this disaster.
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While it is all well and good to have cords and cords of wood and three chainsaws and extra parts ( parts is parts! ) for them, an underground tank of gasoline to run them, etcetera, as important or more so is insulation. It is generally a one time expense. It usually never gets cheaper to wait to buy it ( other than seasonal fluctuations ). You bite the bullet, pay the mind numbing expense and have a lifetime investment. Forever after you need to buy less energy to stay warm, a legitimate worry if you care to worry about Peak Oil ( not running out, just running out of cheap and abundant ). Not only do you save money buying the heat, you can perhaps survive if you can't get any heat at all. I've wanted to increase my trailer insulation since it isn't generally much warmer than a tent ( although much more secure ). The half inch of insulation that was originally installed only kept the interior ten degrees warmer than the outside, and that was if you had solar or propane heat the day before. A few cloudy days and it could get as cold as the outside in the mornings.
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The problem with insulating a trailer is that you basically have two choices. Build a enclosure around the outside or gut the inside to beef up the insulation with studs and fiberglass batts. The first choice means you are no longer mobile. As you might remember, I have three lots of land in Elko. One is paid for, but so far out of town I can't commute daily to work. The one I'm living on is "only" four miles from town, six miles to work. The problem with that one is it's way overpriced at six grand, although the monthly payment is only a hundred bucks. I can't really say why I'm paying on a third lot, other than it's half the distance to town as the paid for lot, on a county road, and I only owe a bit over two grand on it. It seems a small price to pay to combine the benefits of the other two lots. But I'm looking at moving the trailer one of these days, more than likely. I can't see the economy still being viable in the six more years I'm paying on the present lot. And if I must move if I become unemployed and can't afford rent, I can't have any permanent structures ( not to mention it gives me a small thrill not to pay the extra taxes ).
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The problem with gutting the insides is that while you remain mobile you are going to be faced with quite an expense ( not as much as the outside structure but nothing to sneeze at ). If you replace the cabinets you've removed it really adds up. And with my minimal skills at carpentry ( I've finally gotten to the point I don't bend every single nail I hammer in ) it would take a long time. As I'm living in wreckage. Another option I considered was my Hippie Bread Van. I could frame the interior and insulate it a lot easier. And while I don't mind living in a eighty square foot box as long as I have someplace else to store all my crap, I don't think the cats would have liked being so confined. I already feel bad for keeping them indoors, but at least they have thirty feet to run back and forth in. You think that's bad, I bought a van to move from Florida to Nevada just for the cats. Sure, we planned on living in it if needed and it was transportation but we could have taken an airplane and replaced what had been left behind for about twenty percent of the cost. And that wasn't even the cats I have now, it was a different pair. Spoiled little bastards, I hope they love me. What can I say? A pet gives you companionship with few demands, unlike certain other types like spouses.
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So, not being confined in my thinking like others who insist things have to look nice and be perfect, I decided to install ghetto insulation. I spent one half of Saturday trying to find an upholstery store, stoped at the carpet place, went to Home Depot. I pretty much knew what I wanted so I checked prices. Carpet padding or foam pads. The carpet padding was too expensive and too flimsy for wall or ceiling mounting. It would have fallen to pieces. I couldn't find an open upholstery place. So I winged it and bought rolls of the foil faced bubble wrap at Home Depot. Twenty bucks for two by twenty five. I also picked up a heavy duty stapler and a few thousand staples. I could have glued, but like I said, this was a ghetto based operation and looks were far less important than function. I went to Wal-Mart and bought out all their bed foam mattresses. I'm sure it is less effective than the real stuff I could have got at an upholstery place but I was on a mission from God and I couldn't fail.
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Last I went to my workplace on the thrift store side and bought thirty used blankets and a spare foam pad they had. I was now in the hole for four hundred bucks. I had just sold my lot in Arkansas for five hundred, half what the other lots nearby were going for but a little over what I bought it for. It was a win/win. A give a loyal minion a deal and I can easily afford to insulate my trailer. I might never see the land but I would be in this trailer come next winter. By the way, if anyone is interested, I will sell the other two lots for at or below cost ( the decision to sell the first one kind of broke the dam and ruined the magic of my real estate empire ). Northeast middle Arizona, thirty minutes to St. Johns or Show Low. Absolutely in the middle of no where. A "town" is five miles away although I imagine it is only a gas station. Surface water is fifteen miles away. The East Texas lot is five miles from Gun Barrel City. Dirt road alongside with utilities, just down the road from a lake. The main problem there is the local unemployment rate is twice the national average. Both claim to be trailer lots. I can't guarantee anything, it was site unseen. Part of the price is you figure out how to do the paperwork transferring the deed from me to you. You send papers, I sign, you own it. Don't ask me how it is done, I have no idea. I think they sell real estate paperwork bundles at office supply places, or look up in a book in the library. I think the deed papers are simple blanks you fill in the names and amounts, county, state and parcel numbers. But, if you want them cheap, you do the homework. I'll supply county and parcel numbers on request.
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I worked all weekend and I'm about half way done. It takes a lot of time to empty out every nook and cranny, insulate and fill back in. I can't believe the amount of junk I have piled into the trailer. The north side wall got most of the foam pads. On the two windows I won't need to open I stapled up the foam and then blankets over them. Hopefully it will be enough to keep the windows from dripping condensation. The living room I took up the wool carpet with foam pad underneath and added a half roll of fiberglass pink insulation ( it was lying around, got it free ). You can imagine how bulky and lumpy it now is, but I'm tired of cold feet. The last of the foam went into my cabinets where I keep books. The rest is blankets and bubble wrap foil. The first day I got the living room done and most of the windows ( windows get foil ). Just that alone gave me an extra ten degrees, doubling the old insulation's value ( if it is thirty outside in the morning, it used to be forty inside. Now it is fifty- that's how I rate my insulation [ and recall I don't run the heat at night so its trapped solar and propane heat ] ). Sunday I added blankets to all my outside storage compartments, finished the interiors on the north side and finished the last window covering as well as under the tub and half the hallway. That added another five degrees. I still have the south facing walls and interiors of cabinets to do as well as all the ceilings outside of the living room. Even if I only get another five degrees, I'll be happy. From ten degrees above outside temps to thirty. That is a vast improvement.
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Yes, it looks ghetto. Foam pads, different colored blankets, lumpy floors, no uniform material ( it flows from blanket to foam to foil and back again ). Random staples. But, I'm building a cocoon. Cheaply. Remember that 80/20 rule. Pause to be jealous.
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